


lilies in the sea

by hanyus, space (shimyeol)



Series: The Dawn of Magic [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 100 Years Later, A hint of Love at First Sight if you squint, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Bookstores, Boys In Love, Curse Breaking, Curses, First Meetings, Hopeful Ending, Immortality, Immortals, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Keith (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Magic-Users, Magical Bond, New York City, Soulmates, Wandless Magic, Wizards, and some Pidge's Pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 18:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13487436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanyus/pseuds/hanyus, https://archiveofourown.org/users/shimyeol/pseuds/space
Summary: You will find a sea in middle of the desert.You will be given a key as a gift.And you will make the decision to open or not what has been closed.Keith Kogane, an immortal, young wizard who owns a bookstore, has hidden his true self behind a mask under the curse in the line of the eternal. Through cursed words, he has waited for the moment when the line can be cut and the time can come to an end until his last count.And perhaps, only a cite is needed to unite two souls who have went through the ravages of time as their only lives.





	lilies in the sea

**Author's Note:**

> **BEFORE READING:** From now on, I'll no longer be writing in this account, so I'll move to [hanyus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanyus). I'll continue writing Voltron stories there. Thank you!
> 
> Story's note: Magic and immortality? Yes, please, I needed it out of my system. This was supposed to be shorter, but I ended up exceeding it naturally. I hope you enjoy it!

Keith rested his elbow on the counter and his cheek in the palm of his hand, releasing a deep sigh filled with frustration. He looked down at the small book bound in ancient leather, the book he had held in his hands for a whole century. A long, long century; certainly, he remained contemplating the only page of the book that was written. Keith would never stop reading those three phrases in ink.

**_You will find a sea in middle of the desert._ **

**_You will be given a key as a gift._ **

**_And you will make the decision to open or not what has been closed._ **

A century ago, Keith found that small book at his side next to a note, without knowing with certainty who had given it to him or how it had come to him. A unique page… was written with cursed words, declaring an eternal curse: _the immortality._ It was only given to a few wizards and witches, unfortunately. The note, however, said something else: when he tried to decipher the words, and find what he had supposedly been looking for all that time, the curse of immortality will disappear like dust from the past.

For a hundred years, Keith still did not fully understand what the cite meant. He still didn't find what he longed to look for.

“Please stop reading that inexplicable cite over and over again, will you?” Pidge groaned, sliding to his side. “You always make me nervous when you're all focused on it…” She muttered.

Keith did not even raise his head to look at her, “I've been reading it for a century. I don't think you can stop me now, Pidge. Not yet.”

Keith looked away from his big problem and exhaled through his nose, fixing his eyes on the hundreds of books around him. He had been working in a bookstore for twenty years, his only ambition since arriving in New York City. It had never been easy to live a life being immortal, a being that could not die or aged. Nothing in this curse had been easy.

Behind the counter where he was having his internal battle, there was a long U-shaped wooden bookshelf, meticulously surrounding the counter with only two exits on the sides. The books, ancient and current, abounded in the enormous shelf, bound in different kinds of leathers. The entrance to the bookstore, with its large, framed transparent windows, gave way to more bookshelves on the sides, forming small corridors that lined more rows of books and some parchments. And a few meters from the counter, on the right, was a spiral staircase that led to a loft, filled with more and more bookshelves.

The normal for a bookstore in the middle of a New York neighborhood. Keith loved the smell of leather and old paper.

He heard a slight snort from his best friend, Pidge. She was the only mortal person who Keith had told her everything. Pidge knew his situation very well; and honestly, it was the only person who he had entrusted her with the great secret of being a wizard, too. Keith would have liked to relive the moment he told her it, she listening to him attentively, calling him crazy, and showing her a little demonstration that his words had always been true: with magic and the curse of the ravages of time. Keith Kogane would always be twenty-three years old.

“You're a wizard, why don't you just do something?” Pidge asked, adjusting her glasses, “I don't know, um, like make you reach your dear destined partner. Casting a spell so you can go where they're and meet them. Summon the devil! Anything!”

Keith rolled his eyes in boredom, “Pidge, I've told you a million times, the magic doesn't allow us to go down an easy path. It's not as simple as you think,” he growled, closing the small book of his stupid curse.

“It's just that I don't like to see you like this…” Pidge trailed off, sighing again.

She looked at her best friend out of the corner of her eye. Keith had waved a hand in a gentle motion to make a parchment float from one bookshelf to another, placing it. Despite his soft actions with the magic, Pidge saw Keith discouraged and frowning slightly; she knew he wasn't enjoying anything of life. He had no contacts to turn to, more than himself. During the ten years she had known Keith Kogane, Pidge had always seen that tense expression on his face, as if a frown and the tiredness of mere existence had always been there—though she wasn't surprised.

And she didn’t like it at all.

“Listen, Keith,” Pidge began in a soft tone, moving closer to her best friend to rest her cheek on his shoulder, “I know the lives you've gone through and the difficult moments you've endured, but keep in mind that this will not always last, y'know? The curse will go away from one moment to another. Your partner, your soulmate or whatever, will appear, and everything will be over.” She mumbled, trying to cheer him up as she had done those nostalgic years ago.

“Eternity doesn't always last,” Pidge concluded.

Keith stopped placing some books, which remained floating in the air on each section, and stared at Pidge. She looked up back at him and, clearly, that intense look made her shudder. Pidge moved away from him, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

“Are you going to deny it me?” She asked.

Keith said nothing and turned his head, turning his attention to the books that were still in the air. Little by little, the wizard placed them in the corresponding section, observing the front while thinking. It was the only thing he had been doing all those years: thinking about his destiny. Sometimes Keith hated being so immersed in the depths of his mind, and sometimes he was immensely grateful. Now, he didn't even know what to think about, really.

_Eternity doesn't always last._

Many people believed that. Keith, on the other hand… he still wanted to have that tiny essence of hope in him.

“Hey, it's better that you improve that bad mood you have, because Hunk is going to enter right now,” Pidge murmured near his ear.

Keith moved his gaze to the large windows of the entrance. Sure enough, at that moment he saw Hunk, a frequent client and friend of Pidge's university, approaching to the door. As soon as he opened it, a gleaming golden, small bell on the top of the doorframe echoed with a soothing _ding._

Keith calmed himself for having finished prematurely with the magic. He wouldn't have wanted to see the face that Hunk would have put because of the floating books.

“Welcome, Hunk!” Pidge hummed happily, waving a hand in the air.

“Hey, guys,” Hunk greeted, always having that soft and happy smile on his lips.

Why didn't Keith deserve to be happy, too?

“Hey,” Keith greeted him back, trying to form a small smile, at least.

That day Hunk was wearing a black hoodie, gray and soft pants and a pair of matching trainers that looked comfortable. Keith immediately assumed that the man would go to do his favorite exercises on the street: mostly, jogging.

Hunk went to the counter and left a medium-sized book on top. Keith had already completely forgotten that book; he had lent it to Hunk for a work he had to do about Astronomy. Keith refrained from sighing and kept his own stupid cite under the counter, patting the man's book, then.

“I see you’ve read it all…” Keith mused, slightly surprised.

“You know I keep my promises.” Hunk shrugged, “Thanks for this.”

“You’re welcome.”

“How are you doing with the work?” Pidge asked Hunk, moving her fists up and down with excitement.

Keith had also forgotten to mention that both Hunk and she were fanatics of the Astros and all those things related to space and some scientific events.

When he was little, Keith used to cast a spell on the constellations so that they would shine and let the stars dance in the immeasurable space. Doing that kind of magic every night with his father, an eternal time ago, had always made him laugh with happiness. Now, that did not make Keith smile anymore. And the work that Hunk and Pidge were doing in college didn't excite him either, so to speak. Space was no longer the same for Keith since he was cursed.

“I'm doing very well, being honest,” Hunk commented, looking at the time on his wristwatch, “but I'm not going to stop here to talk about it, because I think you'll be tired of hearing about that, right, Keith?” He chuckled, joking.

Keith refrained from being totally sincere throwing an unsuitable answer, so instead he said, “No… not at all.”

Pidge raised an eyebrow and looked in his direction, suspiciously incredulous. Keith ignored her with an unreadable expression.

“Well, in any case, I should go now. Thanks again for the book, Keith.” Hunk said, extending that pleasant smile.

They both waved goodbye to him and, when Hunk's body disappeared beyond the transparent, large windows towards the other street, Keith collapsed on the counter, groaning.

“I hate when you two talk about Astronomy, seriously,” his voice was muffled against his arms.

“I knew you would say that.” Pidge nodded, something amused.

Through the windows, the autumnal sun was already setting. The last rays of the soft light seeping through the bookshelves faded slowly and gradually, taking away the radiant shine in which the bookstore had been immersed. Minute after minute. Time to time.

Keith straightened up and turned his chair to face his best friend, “You should already be in the student residence.” He murmured. “It's already nightfalling.”

Pidge broadened that mischievous smile even more, “I can't believe you're already kicking me out of here. You will not get rid of me so easily until you close.” She added, folding her arms with a defiant look.

The wizard leaned back against the chair, letting out a long, tiring sigh. Pidge looked at the bookstore's entrance out of the corner of her eye.

Keith rested his elbow on the counter, his cheek resting in a fist, “I don't think more customers are coming by now, so—”

“Oh, welcome,” Pidge said suddenly, smiling.

Keith blinked at the unexpected interruption. He followed her gaze to where his best friend was looking, and pursed his lips gently. It was another customer. This time he had not heard the sound of the small bell.

“Welcome,” Keith echoed, seeing the man's tired smile for the last time before turning his gaze back to Pidge.

“Did you say something?” She whispered at him with a sarcastic smile. Keith frowned. He was too tired for another customer, but there was nothing to do until he closed the bookstore.

At no time did Keith look up at the man as he looked between the bookshelves, entering in a narrow corridor of them. Keith closed his eyes for a few seconds, trusting Pidge for vigilance. Until he heard her let out a sigh followed by a, “Wow.”

Keith opened his eyes at that point, seeing that Pidge had been staring in the man's direction before he disappeared behind the large pile of well-placed books.

“What,” Keith asked her in a low tone, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index fingers. He really needed to go home now.

“He looks just as tired as you are,” she commented, “he has your same bags under the eyes. _God_ , why do I see zombies everywhere?” Pidge had whispered the last thing to herself, shaking her head.

Keith tried not to be offended at being called _zombie_.

“Does that matter me?” He drawled, yawning.

“Change that shitty mood, for God's sake,” Pidge whispered, kicking him on the knee.

Keith grimaced, but could not help but smile, “Okay, fine. I stop it.”

“Good.”

Keith sighed.

The wizard slowly looked down at the small book that kept the cursed cite, under the counter. He was going to think again, to think about the possibilities that were left to him, in the lives that awaited him, in the many 'what if' that he maintained of hope… but he didn't want to. Keith just kept his mind like a blank canvas, reached out, and stroked the leather with his fingertips, sliding them on the cover.

Now that he had realized, his life as an immortal had always seemed like an immense desert, without the hope of finding a single drop of information.

Maybe the words didn't make any sense.

Maybe his life didn't make any sense.

Maybe his certainty consisted that the curse was going to pursue him to an end that didn't exist.

The soft touch of some books being rested on the counter, made Keith to straighten his posture, trying to give his body energy to continue working. Turning his chair again, Keith glanced down at the two books and then raised his eyes for a few seconds to see the customer. Immediately, the first thing he saw of him, was his tanned skin, incredibly captivating and beautiful; his hair was visibly silky and brown, somewhat messy; and his hands, which were kinda hidden beneath the sleeves of his coat by the autumn wind. Keith shook his head internally. He didn't want to see more detail.

The wizard formed a small smile when he turned his eyes back down to the title of the books.

One book was about life and over time. The other book was about the marine world.

Keith started charging it at the cash register, “Good books.” He commented absently, laughing bitterly inside, at how ironic that the first book had been. “Do you want it as gift?” Keith asked, remembering that very soon in those months it would be Christmas.

“Uh yes, please,” he replied, flooding Keith's ears with a tired, soft, melodious voice that, if it were not for the fact that he was at work, Keith would fall asleep listening it. He swallowed. His voice reminded Keith exactly as if a gentle breeze caressed gently a golden sea of wheat spikes in midsummer. “Put it with the name of Lance McClain.”

The customer, now called Lance, had leaned on the counter to rest his forearms there, peacefully relaxing his posture. Keith took another look at him and saw him rubbing his eyes with tiredness already present.

“Tired?” Before he could stop himself, Keith found himself asking him that.

Lance looked at him and chuckled softly, “Um, yeah. Kinda so. I haven't been able to sleep well for days.” He admitted easily, shrugging.

Looking away to take the wrapper out, Keith nodded due of the experience itself and pressed his lips in a thin line. Pidge was right, they both looked like zombies.

Said girl cut the wrapper with scissors for him, while Keith began to wrap the books carefully. If he had been alone, or only with Pidge, he would have done it with a slight finger snaps of magic. But at least doing this kept him distracted from the damn book that was still under the counter, making fun of him.

While Keith wrapped and stuck some sellotape on the edges already folded, he heard Lance humming once, and he was also sure to hear a smile in that sigh he released.

“You know,” Lance began, making the wizard look up at him a few seconds before lowering his gaze to continue the work, “sometimes I've wondered what there will be beyond death,” he commented softly, distracted.

Keith, surprisingly, didn't bother him that Lance was a talkative person. After all, he had been the first to start a light conversation. And somehow… Keith liked to hear his voice—so soft and full of light.

“Death, huh?” Keith mused, smiling a little.

Lance nodded, smiling back at him, “ _Life doesn't always balance with the time you wish._ I remember my mother used to tell me that.” He whispered the last thing, smiling fondly. Lance shook his head and Keith felt the weight of his gaze on him again.

The wizard began to wrap the second book about life and over time, stopping without realizing it when Lance spoke again, looking down at that same book:

“I know it could be a stupid question,” Lance murmured, almost in a whisper. When Keith raised his eyes a little by mere curiosity, he noticed that the man had stopped smiling, “but… if you were granted an eternal life that you did not ask for, would you accept it without more ado?” This time he whispered, looking down with something of melancholy the book that Keith was about to wrap.

Keith's smile also fell apart. Pidge frowned in concern.

 _It wasn't a stupid question_ , Keith thought to himself. Slowly, he looked down at Lance's book, lightly clenching his hands into fists.

Keith had thought too much about it. He had had enough time to think about it. In the lives he had lived. In the torments that he had gone through. In the infinite time that moved forward, through the ravages of his life. In the steps that he had taken along the line of the eternal, hoping that one day it would cut and he fall into that void so longed for. In the sleepless nights after the years. In the immense loneliness that had kept his heart… No. He never wanted to live that life. He would never wish it to anyone.

“No,” Keith answered with total sincerity, softening the tone of his voice. “Eternal life is and always will be a _chaos_ , and I don't want to live it anymore.” Keith realized his own words after, but little did he care. No one else knew that he was an immortal being, and he doubted that a customer like Lance knew what he was talking about.

“What?”

Keith pressed his lips gently, resuming his task of wrapping the book, “What, what?” He asked absently.

“Repeat that,” Lance's voice sounded with a soft tinge of despair, “repeat that last thing, please,” he insisted.

For the first time since the man entered in the bookstore, Keith kept eye contact with Lance and did what he asked him, sighing with tiredness.

“Eternal life is and always will be a chaos. And no, I don't want to live it anymore.” Keith repeated, immediately holding his breath.

Those ocean blue eyes that stared at him opened wide.

By the time Keith had finished pronouncing those words with sincerity, a weird feeling had settled in his chest, suffocating him with warmth and filling him with fallen voices, endless whispers and moments of an eternal life that reached its lacking apogee. Something was slipping away from him. Something was falling.

Both Lance and Keith observed that their skin emitted a faint light over them; golden light, tattooed on their souls. Different sensations swirled inside them. Nothing allowed them to close their eyes; nothing allowed them to avoid what was happening. They were drowning into it, together, with the intensity of getting rid of the time count.

One minute. One second. One millisecond. Everything stopped.

Then, a gasp left them when the light of their souls went out, leaving them both breathing raggedly, without looking away from each other. Keith didn't realize that he had clutched his hands tightly on the counter. Lance didn’t realize that he had begun to shake, trying again and again to regulate his breathing rate.

What the hell.

Keith had felt as if all the weight of a life he did not ask for vanished from him. What he had felt had been real.

They stayed there, stunned. Blue and indigos eyes staring at each other wide open.

They had felt, the weight of a lifetime, leave.

Lance… he was _immortal_. He was a _wizard_. Lance McClain had always been his _soulmate_.

“It can not be…” Lance's voice choked, blinking with bloodshot eyes from accumulated tears, “You… It's y-you…”

“Y-you…” Keith gasped, slowly rubbing a drop of sweat that slid down the side of his forehead.

Now everything, absolutely everything made sense.

Lance's eyes regained an intense brightness that had not been there before. A marine blue color as beautiful as the heart of the sea; a sea in which he would allow himself to enter its depths to be able to feel it caressing his skin the rest of his life.

**_You will find a sea in middle of the desert._ **

The question that Lance had asked him.

**_You will be given a key as a gift._ **

The answer he had given Lance without hesitation.

**_And you will make the decision to open or not what has been closed._ **

Oh, Merlin. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Beside him, Pidge gasped, putting her hands to her mouth with her eyes wide open. She blinked, still, mixing the emotion with the enormous desire she had to cry of happiness to have witnessed something so beautiful.

“Oh my God,” she gasped. “Keith, now I will not have to grow old knowing that you will be just as young!” It was the only thing Pidge could say, wanting shout it with all her might.

Then she crushed him into a big hug, making every breath of Keith come out of his mouth. While she rubbed her face against his chest in happiness murmurs, Keith couldn't move. He simply couldn't stop staring at Lance.

Lance didn't stop shaking in any time. Tears had descended down his cheeks without himself being able to stop them. Lance's knees gave out and they were no longer strong enough to hold him—he slid to the floor, lowering his hands from the counter and slowly falling to his knees.

Keith, hearing the beat of the blood in his ears, gave Pidge a quick kiss on her forehead and immediately stepped out the side of the counter, falling squatting in front of Lance.

Keith's eyes also accumulated tears, and no mattered how much he tried to hold them back, it was in vain… a tear found its way down his cheek. Lance lowered his head and drowned a sob full of myriad emotions, covering his face with his both hands. Lance's feelings had exploded, and the heart of Keith broke. Extending his own hands, Keith gently grabbed Lance's wrists and pulled his hands away from his face, wanting to see again that sea in the desert that had been his life. As a reflex and as a support to know that it was real, Lance slid his hands into Keith's, interlacing them slowly so that he could stop his trembling.

They stared into each other's eyes for an indefinite time. In detail, each one looked at the disastrous state they had been in: the noticeable circles under their lower eyelids, traces of a path of tears and another path that began, soft, tired bloodshot eyes, lips chapped by time and reality that had become true.

And not even magic could have remedied everything.

“The moment you answered me that…” Lance began when he calmed himself down, sniffing weakly. He gave Keith a gentle squeeze on his hands, “At that moment… I knew I wasn't wrong.”

Keith moved closer to him, caressing the back of Lance's hand with his thumbs, “How did you know I was going to answer that?” He whispered.

“How did you know I was going to ask you that question?”

“I didn't know,”

Lance curved his lips in a small smile, stop crying, “Same,” he murmured. “I just didn't know; I just felt it. We've felt it.” He paused, sniffing again. “Um, my…”

Leaving the word in the air, Lance closed his eyes. Keith saw out of the corner of his eye how something floated out of his coat's pocket in faint blue sparks: a small book. It floated in the air beside them, opening and forming an unbridled flutter in the old pages, until a single page, the only one that was written, showed up itself before them.

Keith already knew what it was. That book that kept a cite. Those cursed words about eternal life: _the immortality._

**_You will find lilies in middle of the tide._ **

**_You will be given a lock as sincerity._ **

**_And you will make the decision to prove the truth behind the eternal words._ **

Lance let out a short, soft laugh in a gasp, squeezing Keith's hands between his. The brunette was going to cry again, Keith knew, but he was holding himself back.

“My life as an immortal,” Lance began, his bottom lip trembling, “it had always seemed to me like a tide, a chaos, full of water that moved restlessly and unanswered. I never knew what cursed words meant.” He whispered, “Until I saw your eyes, radiant like a lily flower…” Lance smiled fondly. “You answered me with such sincerity, without any doubt… that I felt I had opened something. I don't know,” Lance looked at Keith, and their eyes glowed together. “It was then… It was then I realized that your words had hidden eternity, just like mine.” He added. “M-may be strange to explain, but—”

“Lance, I've felt the same, trust me.”

Lance bit a smile, “ _Keith…_ ” He tasted the name on his lips slowly. Keith was sure that the wizard had heard it from Pidge. Lance looked at him, soft eyes. “What a beautiful name.”

As much as Lance tried, the tears gushed out from the corners of his eyes.

“A century…” Lance's voice broke.

“…waiting for you,” Keith finished, moving closer to Lance until they pressed their foreheads together.

Lance choked back a small sob, feeling the soft touch of the other wizard.

“It's happening.”

“It's happening.” Keith whispered.

Feeling it from the heart, Keith gave an Eskimo kiss to Lance, slowly and gently brushing his nose with Lance's. The other wizard chuckled fondly, a faint pink hue settling over his cheeks. Keith enjoyed it. For the first time in years, he felt that his heart was filled with happiness. The happiness that Keith would share beside Lance.

_Everything was over._

“One hundred years… with this curse.” Lance said in a low voice. “Merlin, I can't believe it. Finally, after a hundred years… we can finally live mortal lives.”

Keith smiled fondly at him, soft eyes with millions of feelings, “We can finally get old,” he said, lowering his gaze to Lance's lips, “ _together._ ”

The word, whispered from the heart, remained engraved on their lips when a kiss sealed it with the taste of a distant past eternity. With the taste of a cut line, and the time coming to an end until its last count.

Despite the infinity of fates, despite the years elapsed, only a cite was needed to unite two souls who had went through the ravages of time as their only lives.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading~! Comments and Kudos are welcome and appreciated ✨


End file.
